(a) Field
Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a liquid crystal display.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display, which is one of the most widely used types of flat panel displays, typically includes two panels with field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode, for example, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two panels. The liquid crystal display generates an electric field in the liquid crystal layer by applying voltage to the field generating electrodes, and the direction of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer is determined by the generated electric field, thus controlling polarization of incident light to display images.
In the liquid crystal display, when the electric field is not generated in the liquid crystal layer, since a vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display, in which longitudinal axes of liquid crystal molecules are arranged substantially vertical to the display panel, has a large contrast ratio and a wide reference viewing angle, the vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display has been in the limelight. Here, the reference viewing angle means a luminance inversion critical angle between viewing angles or grays which have the contrast ratio of 1:10.
In the vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display, to improve side visibility to be close to front visibility, a method is proposed, in which one pixel is divided into two subpixels and voltage of any one subpixel thereof is lowered and as a result, voltages of the two subpixels are different from each other, such that transmittances thereof are different from each other.
However, as described above, in the vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display where one pixel is divided into two subpixels and voltage of any one subpixel thereof is lowered and as a result, voltages of the two subpixels are different from each other, luminance of the side is increased as compared with the front in a low gray and thus a gray in a low gray region may not be accurately expressed, and the entire luminance is lowered as compared with the applied pixel voltage and as a result, driving efficiency may be impaired.